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Meet Mike Watson, aka Paul MacClone

Head Coach Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators has a look alike behind the bench against the Florida Panthers during second period of NHL action at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, January 21, 2013.Photo: Jean Levac/OTTAWA CITIZEN

OTTAWA — Mike Watson doesn’t often dress up, and he rarely gets out to Senators games, so when he threw on a tie, dress shirt and suit jacket prior to Monday night’s season home opener against the Florida Panthers, he admits he did so with a bit of tomfoolery in mind: he wanted to get the attention of Ottawa head coach Paul MacLean.

At 54, Watson is five months younger than MacLean and a few more inches shorter, and his hockey career never got past playing outdoor shinny with friends as a kid at Sharel Park in Alta Vista. But with his close-cropped hair and great bushy moustache, the physical similarities between he and MacLean are far more striking than their differences, and Watson’s presence in a seat directly behind the home team’s player bench got plenty of notice from fans and on highlight reels everywhere.

Even the players were joking about it after the game.

“I had a double take,” said centre Zack Smith. “I saw him the first time I went on the bench.”

MacLean, however, failed to catch a glimpse of his stunt-double.

“I did not see him,” the coach said after the team’s 4-0 win. “The only time I wondered was when (linesman) Lonnie Cameron came up and told me, ‘Mac, you’ve got to turn around and see your relative.’ I told him, ‘I’m not going to turn around and look.’”

For Watson, who manages Max Auto Supply on Michael Street in an industrial park off St. Laurent Boulevard, the prank was a game-day decision made just a few hours before the opening faceoff, after some of his work colleagues suggested it.

“My looks came when I got my No. 2 brush cut last summer,” he explained, noting that he has had the moustache for more than a decade and a half. “And we’ve had those seats for four or five years, but I don’t go to too many games because we give most of our tickets to customers. I had the opportunity to go (Monday) and jumped on it, and then we figured, ‘Let’s get a suit jacket and shirt and tie and have some fun.’

“I’ve had customers call me coach,” he added, “and after a win say I’ve done a good job. And after a loss my name is mud.”

Asked if he thought the Sens coach was a good-looking man, Watson answered with a single word: “Unbelievable.

“But I have a bit more hair.”

And while Watson’s appearance behind the bench failed to chip away at MacLean’s propriety sufficiently to catch his eye, Watson noted that many others attending the game approached him. Some shook his hand, while a couple of youngsters asked to have their photo taken with him.

“And I was walking out of the washroom, and a guy actually grabbed my face and wanted me to take my mask off.”

Watson, who has been dubbed “Paul MacClone,” also corrected reports made by Sportsnet broadcasters Monday night that he had been asked by security to leave.

“No,” he said. “We left five or six minutes early, just to beat the rush.”

Watson, who had never before been on television or in the newspaper, said that he expects his appearance as MacLean’s doppelgänger will likely remain a one-off, and that if he’s lucky enough to get tickets to future games, he’ll go as himself.

“All we wanted to do was be a couple of boys having a couple of beers, a couple of laughs, and let’s go home. I’ve had my 15 minutes of fame. It’ll die down quick, then back to reality.”